March 4, 2005
This weekend, baseball will final come to Fairfax, Va. and the confines of Spuhler Field as George Mason hosts Fordham in a three game series. A doubleheader is scheduled for Saturday with a nine-inning game at Noon and a seven-inning game to follow. Sunday's game is slated for 1 p.m.
George Mason enters its home opener at 3-3 on the season after some inconsistent play in the first two weekends. The Patriots' have so far lost to a pair of Southeastern Conference schools, Kentucky and Tennessee, as well as Charleston Southern. Mason has defeated Penn State, UNC Greensboro and Appalachian State. The Patriots have committed 14 errors in their three losses, fielding .877 in those games while hitting .271. They have lost those games by an average of six runs.
In the three wins, Mason has committed just four total errors, fielding .967 and batting .321. Two constants on the team have been senior righthander Stacen Gant and junior catcher Robby Jacobsen.
Gant is 2-0 on the year with a 2.31 ERA. Gant became the school's all-time leader in winning percentage last weekend when he defeated UNC Greensboro to improve to 18-5 on his Mason career. Jacobsen is batting .417 and is tied for the team lead with nine runs scored. More importantly, he has not made an error this year.
While Gant and Jacobsen have received their share of headlines so far this year, the spotlight has mostly fallen on sophomore third baseman Chris Fournier, who has had the game-winning RBI in all three of Mason's wins. Fournier is batting .478 on the year, with a .613 on-base percentage and an .870 slugging mark. He leads the team in all those categories, as well as RBI (10), home runs (2), hits (11) and walks (7). He was named the CAA Player of the Week for the week ending February 27.
he Rams come to Virginia for the second time this year when they play at Spuhler Field this weekend. Their last trip to the state saw University of Virginia take two out of three. Fordham salvaged the final game of the series, defeating the Cavaliers, 3-2. Cory Riordan got the start, his second collegiate appearance. He went six innings allowing just one run in earning the win.
Jeremy Bourgeois has been the big force at the plate for Fordham, batting .391 (9 for 23) with four home runs, six RBI and seven runs scored. He is slugging .913.
